


Molto Dolce

by implication_realization



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Asexual Obi-Wan Kenobi, Cuddling & Snuggling, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Family, Fluff, Humor, Kissing, M/M, Obi-Wan Kenobi Gets a Boyfriend, Obi-Wan Kenobi Gets a Hug, Old Men In Love, Post-Star Wars: A New Hope, Rebel Alliance (Star Wars), Short & Sweet, Snippets, gratuitous use of parenthesis, it's not mentioned or even really relelvant to the plot but it matters to me, no beta I have no friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 12:48:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29278704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/implication_realization/pseuds/implication_realization
Summary: "Molto Dolce" is a musical instruction to play very sweetly.Two decades after the world kinda ends, Obi-Wan and Bail find each other again (and refuse to let go).
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi/Bail Organa
Comments: 7
Kudos: 40





	Molto Dolce

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A new hope ficlet](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/756348) by jasperskywalker. 



Obi-Wan was prepared to face his death. This was the path the force had set for him, the one he had chosen to take, and he would not back out now. 

Except, somehow he survived. Survived Tatooine, survived the Death Star, lived long enough to see the twins reunited and then-

And then Bail was there. 

There was something so soft and whole and kind about being able to hold Bail again. After everything, Obi-Wan was going to let himself have this. To feel warm and safe, to be held, it was such a relief that he nearly cried (actually, he did cry, quite a few times, but Bail was always there when it happened so it didn't really count, not when Obi-Wan had cried alone nearly his whole life).

Somehow he and Bail had found each other again after it all and it was a gift beyond comprehension. It patched up things in Obi-Wan that he hadn't even noticed were broken.

He held on tight, soaked in Bail's presence, and refused to think about the possibility that he might one day have to let go. And if it made him a bad Jedi, well, there were no Jedi anymore, so they'd just have to let him have this.

(He wouldn't have to let go. The force would grant him this one mercy.)

¤¤¤¤

Obi-Wan woke before Bail did. The room was dark, but despite the inherent subconscious confusion of recent travel, there was no mistaking the body next to his in the slightly-too-small bunk. Even if he somehow failed to notice the force presence (that he immediately recognized but had forgotten the beautiful details of), the curves and edges of Bail’s body were familiar under his hands. It had been so long since he had last woken with his arms around the man who had gently accepted a carved-out corner of Obi-Wan's soul and held it in his own for safekeeping.

It was a while before Bail woke. (Possibly a few hours but it's easy to lose track of time when basking in someone's presence in the force). He was still hazy from sleep when he flailed out an arm towards the small bedside table and instead ran into Obi-Wan. All of a sudden Bail was a bit more awake and there was an oh-so-familiar hand grasping Obi-Wan's shoulder in the dark.

Even though he couldn't see it, Obi-Wan knew Bail was smiling as he spoke. "Morning"

He smiled back in the dark, “Good morning.”

Maybe everything would be okay.

¤¤¤¤

Bail insisted that Obi-Wan get checked out by a medic (something about old injuries and the desert and ‘ignoring his own health’). The medic was a menace and Bail was fussing. There was no way for Obi-Wan to talk his way out of their clutches. He projected a persistent ‘I am not happy about this’ in the force with a scowl to match, but Bail was having none of it. 

(He would admit that it was nice to have someone concerned about him after so long alone.)

Bail, the traitor, told the medic everything they needed to know. The medic, in turn, made sure Bail understood all the treatment recommendations. There would be no ignoring the physiotherapy, the therapeutic nutrition supplements, the follow up appointment in three weeks.

(He wouldn’t even if he could. Not with the way Bail sometimes looked at him like he might disappear. Now when he knew Bail must see the same on his face.)

¤¤¤¤

"Luke, I think your desert hermit is sleeping with my dad."

The mess was miraculously empty when Leia marched in and made her proclamation. Luke's eyes grew comically wide. His stuttered attempt at a response was inaudible over Chewie's quite literal roars of laughter.

Han, on the other hand, made sure he was heard: "Please tell me you're serious." He was grinning ear to ear.

Leia's upright posture melted a bit and she took a seat at the table with her friends. She almost felt bad about talking about Ben, or Jedi Master High General Obi-Wan Kenobi, behind his back, but if someone was going to flirt that much with Bail Organa, Leia Organa was going to call them on it. It was her prerogative as his daughter.

"I have reason to believe that the nature of their relationship is more serious and intimate than I had previously thought," she said neatly.

Luke had yet to recover his skills of coherent speech, so Han and Leia took up the conversation to the soundtrack of a cackling wookie.

Han looked thoughtful, "Actually, I can see it." 

"Han, this is my father we're speaking of, if you could please have some respect."

"Sweetheart, I've got nothing but respect for your old man, I'm just saying, they make sense as a couple. Unless you got a problem with that?" Han raised his eyebrows and gave Leia a look that she responded to with a glare. 

"It’s not them being a couple that bothers me, it’s that now I have to deal with my middle aged father all doe-eyed over some stranger who's spent recent history going by the name 'Crazy Old Ben' and is offering me tea and saying we'll have to do a dinner 'as a family,' and the flirting!" Leia was properly ruffled by now. Of all things, it was her father's love life that broke her royal composure.

"Well, they're maybe not strangers to each other; sounds like they've got history," Han said.

Leia nodded. "Yes, they went on a few adventures during the war, I've heard the stories. But I suspect there are certain things I wasn't told, because they're close. Very close."

Luke finally spoke up, shaking his head. "That's so weird.”

"I know!" Leia agreed, relieved to have someone on the same page, settling back into her equilibrium. “I maintain that, as someone’s child, you have a right to be completely oblivious to their sex life. And my father has disregarded that right.” 

Luke continued, "Well, that too, but I meant, people can… sleep together and it's fine and none of our business but Ben just,” Luke paused, slightly unsure of his words, “never seemed like a... person. He was always more of a ghost. It sounds kinda horrible to say it that way, but it was like he was never fully there. It’s weird to think of him in a relationship.” Luke shrugged, “But I guess he’s seemed a lot more real recently."

Han snorted lightly, "Well it sounds like getting it on with his royal highness has been good for our favorite desert fossil. May he continue to reap the benefits of kripping the princess's dad." Han lifted his mug in a mock toast.

“That’s not what I-” Luke tried to interrupt, but Chewie was back at it. 

Leia just sighed and put her head in her hands. She wondered briefly whether there was any culture in the galaxy which had a deity for daughters of dating fathers to whom she could pray. 

(Leia later realized that the only person around who would know the answer to that question was Obi-Wan himself. Would there be no end to her suffering?)

¤¤¤¤

It was a bit difficult for Obi-Wan to fit back into the civilized galaxy. The standards for social engagement on Tatooine had been rather low and Obi-Wan's people skills had atrophied. When the whole world was stripped away, Obi-Wan fell back on the instincts forged in the creche; it was so much easier to communicate with the force than with words. Bail said once while they were holding each other (certifiably Obi-Wan’s favorite pass-time) that sometimes it felt like the air pressure changed a bit, and it would make him happy and he wouldn't be able to say why.

(Obi-Wan nuzzled his face into Bail's neck, held him a bit tighter, and laughed. Beautiful Bail, about as force sensitive as clay.)

Things were good.

The two of them spent most of their time together. After losing so much, being apart for so long, they weren't going to miss a moment. Obi-Wan's experience as a high-ranking Jedi general proved invaluable to the rebellion, which meant long strategy meetings with Alliance leadership. Conveniently, Alliance leadership happened to include Bail, so it was no hardship for them to spend the time pressed side to side, holding hands. (In the dim light of the high command center no one gave them a second glance. In the halls of the base, the rare familiar face would wish them well. The far-more-common young strangers would stare in awe at the legends walking among them.)

¤¤¤¤

Obi-Wan had not had the luxury of good tea on Tatooine. There was a distinct lack of green things on that planet and cultivated vegetation tended to be the bare necessities, not something as superfluous as tea. And then there was the water issue. Liquid was something he’d had to ration, thus tea of any sort had become a rarity in the wastes. 

Not so on the rebel base. If Obi-Wan had not already been in love with Bail, the tea leaves he smuggled out of the officer break room would have done it. There were actual, good teas in his hands. Obi-Wan kissed Bail. There really wasn’t any other way to convey his gratitude (except, perhaps, making him a cup, but the water was still warming up and Obi-Wan wasn’t going to pass up an excuse to kiss Bail).

Bail hummed against his mouth and pulled back with a smile. “You’re welcome.”

And so they had tea in Bail’s cramped quarters (which were now also Obi-Wan’s). It became a ritual of theirs. In the mornings before they wanted to be awake it was tea in bed. After long command meetings they sat around the small table and warmed their hands around the mugs. In the rare moments they were both completely obligation free they would pull pillows and blankets onto the floor as if they were still children (as if their joints wouldn’t complain about it later), backs against the wall, limbs lost to linen, air full of the aroma of that day’s drink. Sometimes they would talk about something in particular or everything in general, sometimes they just appreciated each other's company in silence because talking could be hard but being there together was the easiest thing in the world. Their whole worlds were gone, but they still had each other, and Luke and Leia, and the rebellion. Hope was no longer an ambiguous concept associated with a child he rarely saw, it was something he lived, with family. 

Yes, that’s what he had now, what he thought he’d never have again: family. And hope.

**Author's Note:**

> My new band is called cackling wookie, watch out for our mixed tape.


End file.
